Products to be transported and/or stored often are packed within a box or other container. In many instances, however, the shape of the product does not match the shape of the container. Most containers utilized for transporting products have the general shape of a square or rectangular box and, of course, products can be any shape or size. To fit a product within a container and to safely transport and/or store the product without damage to the product, the void space within the container is typically filled with a packing or cushioning material.
The protective-packing material utilized to fill void space within a container is often a lightweight, air-filled material that may act as a pillow or cushion to protect the product within the container. Many types of protective packaging have been used. These include, for example, foam products, inflatable pillows, and paper dunnage.
In the context of paper-based protective packaging, rolls of paper sheet are crumpled to produce the dunnage. Most commonly, this type of dunnage is created by running a generally continuous strip of paper into a machine and then cutting the crumpled sheet material into a desired length to effectively fill void space within a container holding a product. A dunnage conversion machine thus converts a compact supply of stock material, such as a roll or stack of paper, into a lower density dunnage material as the dunnage material is needed by the packer. Exampled of cushioning product machined that feed a paper sheet from an innermost location of a roll are described in U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2008/0076653 and 2008/0261794.